Tech Billionaires Can’t Seem to Stop Funding Racist Republicans
The 2018 midterm elections still aren't over, mainly because of a runoff in Mississippi, but also a little bit because we're actually in purgatory. The race between Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy would likely have received little national attention if Hyde-Smith weren't so hell-bent on aping Donald Trump; unfortunately for her, not everyone has his knack for getting away with racist and violent rhetoric.
Hyde-Smith basically set off a bomb of bad publicity when she said that she so loved one supporter that she would gladly go with him to a "public hanging." It's confusing why she wouldn't think people would assume she was talking about a lynching, considering Mississippi's deeply racist history and the fact that this is not some down-home colloquialism.
Since then Hyde-Smith has also said that she's a fan of keeping liberals from voting, and a photo of her in a Confederate hat at Jefferson Davis's house has also surfaced.
In response to the hanging comment in particular, several huge companies, including Walmart, have asked for their donations back. They were apparently fine with Hyde-Smith's fawning over Trump and her vows to support all of his terrible ideas, but at least her wanting a front-row seat at a lynching was too far for them.
It's not, however, too far for the former Facebook president and founder of Napster, Sean Parker. According to The Daily Beast, Parker, who has a net worth of over $2 billion, donated $250,000 to a political group supporting Hyde-Smith in her primary against Chris McDaniel, who was criticized for taking money from KKK-connected donors. She won that primary, but now Hyde-Smith is using the remainder in her race against Espy. Per the Beast:
In a statement to The Daily Beast, a spokesperson for Parker tried to distance him from the senator. “Mr. Parker doesn’t know Cindy Hyde-Smith and finds her rhetoric reprehensible,” the spokesperson said. “His contribution from early this year was a continuation of the effort to defeat McDaniel.”
But Parker’s spokesman gave no indication that he planned to ask for a refund for any of his sizable contributions to the pro-Hyde-Smith group. “Mr. Parker’s connection to the Mississippi Victory Fund goes back to 2014 and is expressly tied to helping defeat Chris McDaniel,” the spokesman wrote. And his money remains the largest contribution this cycle to a group spending significant sums on Hyde-Smith’s behalf ahead of the November 27 runoff election.
It's no secret that Silicon Valley gives loads of financial support to Republicans, sometimes to buy access, sometimes to hedge bets, and sometimes because their goals are aligned. Keeping someone like Chris McDaniel from winning a primary is an unobjectionable goal, sure. But Parker could also join other donors in demanding a refund. If tech billionaires are fine leaving their money in the hands of people who aggressively sell themselves as Trump flunkies, it's hard to not think they're all on the same page.
